Milk delivery and storage container



Feb. 19, 1957 N. DEMBS MILK DELIVERY AND STORAGE CONTAINER Filed 'April11, 1955 INVENTOR. NELSON DEMBS United States Patent MILK DELIVERY ANDSTORAGE CONTAINER NelsonDembs, Detroit, Mich.

Application April 11, 1955, Serial No. 500,453

1 Claim. (Cl. 232-434) This. invention relates to a milk delivery andstorage container and, more particularly, a container which isadaptedtobe mounted in an opening located in the outside wallof' a houseand which is adapted to receive deliyeries' of milk and other similararticles through an access, door located'on the outside surface of ahouse wall and is provided withv an inner door through which thehouseholder may remove these articles without going outside the house.

In, the construction of new dwelling houses, it is desirable to providethe purchaser of the house with a container' means. adapted to receivedeliveries of milk and similar type groceries which are deliveredperiodically to the house. .Access to such a container must be providedon the outside of the house so that the delivery man may deliver hisgroceries into the container. Likewise, in order to-avoid the necessityof having the householder go outside the house to obtain'thesedeliveries, it is desirable to provide an access'door to the containeron the inside of the house for the convenience of the householder.

In recent years such delivery containers have been provided-in the'formof an opening in the outside wall of the house, usually near the backdoor. Doors cover the opening and through these doors groceries, milk,etc., may be inserted and received within thehouse. However, one of themajor objections to this type of delivery container is that it is easyfor an unauthorized person to reach hishand or arm or a long stick or,rod through the outside door and then through the inside door of thecontainer and thus reach around to the door knob of the back door tothereby open the door and permit access to the house. In recent years,numerous burglaries of houses have been performed in just this manner.

Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to provide a storagecontainer for milk and the like which container is mounted Within anopening in the outside Wall of the house adjacent the back door or somesuch similar door but wherein it is not possible for an unauthorizedperson to reach through the container into the house to thereby open thehouse door or look. To accomplish my objective, I provide a container ofa width equal to the width of the wall and which fits Within the walland has cover plates which are positioned upon or slightly overlap theoutside and inside surfaces of the house wall to cover the openingtherein. Access doors are provided in these plates, but these doors areoffset relative to each other so as to provide a tortuous passagewaythrough the container to thereby make it extremely difficult if notimpossible to reach through the container and thereby to the door knob.

In addition, I provide a container wherein opposite cover plates of thecontainer are provided on the inside and on the outside of the housewall and wherein access openings which are covered by doors are providedin these cover plates. However, these passageways and related doors areofifset relative to each other in a horizontal direction with the doornearest to the entrance door of the house being located on the outsidesurface of the wall and the container access door on the inside of thehouse being located remote from the door of the house. In addition,these access doors of the container are hingedly connected to thecontainer cover plates so as to open in opposite directions to therebymake it extremely diflicult, if not impossible, for any unauthorizedperson to break into the house.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will becomeapparent upon reading the following description of which the attacheddrawings form a part.

Referring to the drawings which illustrate one preferred modification ofmy invention:

Fig. 1 illustrates a front view of the outside of a house having mynovel container mounted therein and located adjacent the entrance doorof the house.

Fig. 2 is a view taken on line 22 of Fig. 1 with the wall incross-section to show the container mounted within the opening in thewall.

Fig. 3 illustrates a cross-sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1with the access doors of the container partially open.

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional View taken on line 44 of Fig. 3.

In the drawings, I illustrate the outside wall of a house 10, having anoutside surface 11 and an inside surface 12 and a door 13 provided witha door knob and locking means (not shown) 14. At the time that this wallis constructed, an opening 15,.which may be rectangular in shape isprovided in the wall in the vicinity of the door 13.

My novel container, generally designated as 20 fits within this opening15 in the wall. The container may be in the form of a substantiallyrectangular box having a topwall 21, a bottom wall 22, and end walls 23and 24. Cover plates25 and 26 cover the opening to the container on theoutside and inside surfaces of the wall respectively. These walls andcover plates may be joined together in any conventional manner, as forexample, by welding, riveting, etc.

In this specific modification, the cover plates are adapted to overlapthe surfacesof the Walladjacent the opening for a slight distance inorder to improve-the appearance of the point of connection of thecontainer with the wall. Thus, each of the cover plates 25 and 26 areprovided. with flanges 28 which are bent toward and contact the wall andwhich rigidly position and hold the box within the wall opening.

It is to be noted that the width of the container walls 21 and 24inclusive is approximately the same or slightly more than the width ofthe house wall 10 so that the cover plates may each be positioned at theopposite surfaces of the house wall.

The cover plates 25 and 26 are each provided with passageways 30 and 31for the purposes of permitting delivery of articles into the containerand removing delivered articles from the container into the inside ofthe house. These passageways are offset relative to each other forreasons to be set forth below. Each of these passageways are coveredwith a swinging door 32 and 33 which are hinged by hinge means 34 to therespective cover plates. In addition, each of these doors are providedwith handles 356 and fastening means located on the door and on thecover plate respectively. These fastening means may consist of aresilient clip 37a on the door and a knob 3Tb on the plate or on the boxwalls adapted to catch these resilient clips and hold the door closeduntil such time as they are pulled open. Since these clips areconventional, no further description thereof is deemed necessary.

As illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawings, it can be seen that the doors32 and 33 are hinged near the center of the respective cover plates andswing open in opposite directions. Thus, because the passageways in thecover plates are offset horizontally relative to each other and becausethe doorsopen in opposite directions, it is extremely difficult for anunauthorized person to reach through the container to reach the doorknob 14 and thereby open the door 13 to gain access to the house.

The builder of a home, may purchase a container unit constructed inaccordance with my invention, and then may position the box within awall opening or in the alternative may construct the wall around the boxto fit in beneath the flanges 28 and abut up against the walls 22 to 24inclusive. Because of the difficulty in reaching through this container,the container may be positioned quite close to the door of thehouse'without fear of any unauthorized person being able to open suchdoor.

Once the container is installed into a house wall, the delivery man needonly open door 32 and insert his milk bottles 40 or some such similararticles and then close the door 32 which will then be retained in itsclosed position by means of the fasteners 37a and 37b. Thereafter, thehouseholder who wishes to remove the articles from the container for usein the house has merely to open the inside door 33 and reach into thecontainer to remove the articles.

The particular container illustrated in the drawings being particularlydesigned to receive milk bottles which are the most frequent deliveriesto any house, is made of such a dimension as to receive a number of milkbottles and is high enough to accommodate the bottles within thecontainer. in addition, the doors in the cover plate may be constructedso as to cover an opening which is approximately one half of the area ofthe cover platev Since the passageways are offset relative to eachother, in this situation each passageway would begin at approximatelythe middle of the container and extend close to an end of the coverplate. Thus, each passageway opens into a blind wall on the oppositeside of the cover plate.

The container itself may be constructed of a relatively stiff gage sheetmetal by any suitable stamping or bending process and the various wallsmay be welded or riveted or otherwise secured together to form a unitarycontainer structure. When inserted within a wall, because of the flanges28 abutting against the wall surfaces, the builder may, if he wishes,eliminate any further support for the container and rely simply upon theflanges 28 abutting against the wall 10 to retain the box or containerin its correct position.

In addition, this container may in special instances be mountedvertically, that is, with the opposite access doors being verticallyoflset. However, in this situation it is somewhat less ditticult toinsert a burglary tool through the doors to open the house door, thanwhen the container is horizontally mounted.

This invention may be further developed within the scope of thefollowing attached claim and therefore it is desired that the foregoingdescription be read as being merely an illustration of one operativeembodiment of my invention and not in a strictly limiting sense.

Having fully described one operative embodiment of my invention, I newclaim:

A unitary article of manufacture comprising three separate unitarysub-assemblies joined to one another as sub-assemblies to form thearticle, the first sub-assembly being a four sided sheet metal boxhaving two vertical open ends with their edges transversely flangedoutwardly, the other two sub-assemblies being identical sheet metalpans, each having a plate portion of greater area than that of an openbox end with its flange, with the box flanges being welded to the plateportions, the plate portions having transverse flanges surrounding thebox, each plate portion having a hole occupying approximately 50% of thearea of the plate portion overlying the adjacent open end of the box,each hole containing and being closed by a hinged door fiush with theremainder of the plate portion, the hinge line for each cover being avertical edge of the hole located approximately half way between theother vertical edge of that hole and that vertical side of the box mostremote from such other vertical edge of that hole, the two plates beingreversely positioned on the box so that the hole and cover of one arenot in horizontal alignment with the hole and cover of the other but areas far removed horizontally from the hole and cover of the other as ispossible, whereby the human arm to be passed through both holes mustextend diagonally across the box and cannot extend through the box on anaxis parallel to vertical box sides.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

